The Rift Between US
by Ownage Imminent
Summary: Lucy struggles to confront her feelings for Natsu, Charla begins to have visions of an extradimensional eldritch horror and the grand magical games have been mysteriously canceled. All the while several elusive figures stalk Lucy and her friends with no apparent motive and a near complete immunity to magic. Nalu, Rated T for language and violence, rating may change to M.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1: Divergence

Disclaimer: Fairy Tail is owned and created by Hiro Mashima, not myself.

The vows had been largely said, Lucy Heartfilia stood at the alter of the Cathedral looking the envy of the other girls in her bridal procession. Lucy herself stood immaculate her wedding gown, along with those of her bridesmaids being a group effort led by Mirajane and Lisanna.

"I do," Natsu replied, a single tear of joy dropping from his left eye.

"And do you Lucy Heartfilia, take this man to be your lawful wedded husband." The archbishop asked solemnly as he turned to her.

Lucy's heart was beating so fast and hard she thought it might rupture.

"I do!" She replied, barely able to hide her absolute joy.

Then the world blew up.

Time seemed to slow as shards of stained glass rained down on the congregation. Lucy's instincts kicked in as she reached for her keys only to realize that she didn't have them with her. After all, who would attack a wedding, much less one attended by some of the most powerful wizards in Fiore.

Her shock turned to a feeling of doom as a massive figure landed atop the archbishop, crushing him into the marble floor. It, whatever it was, looked like a knight, it had the plumed helmet that completely covered its face, full plate armor, a massive tower shield and a spear. All in black

Without hesitation the figure turned and impaled Lucy cleanly through, its spear piercing through the soft and immaculate fabric of her wedding dress. The weapon continued, ramming through her abdomen and erupting out of her lower back and severing her spine in the process.

Lucy awoke with an understandable shriek grasping at her stomach. She was understandably relieved when she finally regained her senses and understood that she was not in fact about to die and was in fact, safe and quite comfortable in her bed.

Lucy plopped back down on her pillow breathing a massive sigh of relief before she started blushing profusely.

_Natsu, me, Married!? _She thought to herself _I like him, I've had a bit of a crush on him since we met but marriage? Like that'll ever happen. I don't even know if he likes me back. I just don't know._

The she remembered the black figure and her heart skipped a beat. She usually didn't have dreams with such bad endings as of late. She didn't understand, it was probably just dream, Charla was the one with precognition.

Lucy got up and bathed but the question of her feelings toward Natsu kept nagging at her and she began to have trouble thinking about anything else. This was enough that when she was drying herself off she failed to notice a black armored figure briefly observe her through the window before disappearing.

As Lucy had finished dressing and was just going to her door to leave when it burst open with enough force to break one of the hinges.

"Lucy you need to get to the guild quick something really bad just happened!" Natsu practically screamed as he careened into the room.

Lucy's heart fluttered as she remembered the events of her dream before her thoughts turned to outrage as she realized she was now going to have to pay to have another thing replaced that Natsu had broken.

"The door has a knob you know!" She scolded before being interrupted by Natsu who seemed oblivious to her concerns

"The grand magical games just got canceled," Happy blurted out flying into the room.

"What!" Lucy blurted out dumfounded, "Why, How?"

"I don't know," Natsu replied, "The papers seemed to think it was some sort of terrorist attack or a group of rogue wizards trying to steal something. In any case we need to get to the guild."

Lucy nodded and followed him.

The guildhall was filled with chatter as they arrived, everyone was speaking in hushed worried voices. The plan had been to win the grand magical games and regain their former glory quickly. Lucy thought about this and felt a grim uncertainty. How in the world would they regain their spot as number one with all the other guilds having a seven-year advantage?

She was brought out of her thoughts as Natsu handed her a copy of the paper and Lucy began to read.

"Grand Magical Games Cancelled," read the headline, "An unknown attack in the capital and a what appears to have been a massive explosion in the palace has caused the crown to suspend the games for one year while the damage is assessed and an investigation is performed."

"It looks like we don't have much of a choice but to wait until next year for the games or try to get back to number one the old fashioned way," Lucy stated. "We'll certainly have no shortage of work."

"I guess," Natsu pouted, "Still, I really wanted to test myself against some of the other guilds."

"In a way you might get your chance," Master Makarov said jumping onto the nearby bar table.

"AHEM!" Makarov barked to get the attention of everyone in the guild. "I know a lot of you are disappointed by this turn of events, I know I am. Still what this means is that we have no choice but to gain back our number one spot the old way or attend the grand magical games next year. In any case I recommend all of you take as many jobs as you can to get some cash and hone your skills. That's all I can say for now as I'm still investigating what happened in the capital myself."

The guild went back to its chattering and a few members went to the job board.

"That being said, Natsu, Wendy, Gajeel, and Laxus I have something for you," Makarov continued.

The four dragon slayers, a little confused, moved over to Makarov

"I don't know if this is a coincidence," He stated. "But with all the madness in the capital the paper has yet to report on some information I know."

"What is it gramps," Gajeel asked with his arms crossed and an eyebrow raised.

"There is a small farming village to the northwest of here. Two days ago it was attacked and burned to the ground by a dragon. There were only a handful of survivors."

The four dragon slayers were stunned to say the least, all of them shocked.

"I can see why you called us over here," Laxus replied, "But how do you know it's a dragon?"

"Beyond the several eye witness accounts one of the villagers had a lacrima powered camera with him," Makarov replied lowly before fishing something out of his pocket. "Here."

He handed Laxus a photograph.

There was a sharp intake of breath from all of them as they viewed it. The picture showed a dragon of pure golden color raking a nearby field with golden flames, the moon behind it. The picture also shown a number of farm animals and people on fire and running wildly. In addition, the picture also revealed something else about the dragon. Aside from the wings, limbs, tail, and head the dragon had a massive number of what looked like tentacles protruding from it and its head had a countless number of glowing green eyes giving it an eldritch look.

"Our guild has the largest number of dragon slayers that I'm aware of," Makarov stated. "I think by now you know what your job is. Take who ever else with you that you think will be helpful."

The four dragon slayers looked at each other uncertainly before Natsu spoke up.

"I'll get get happy and Lucy," He stated before running off.

"I'll get Charla," Wendy said shakily putting down the photo

"I'll get Lilly," Gajeel shrugged as if this whole ordeal didn't seem to bother him.

"Yeah the lot of you get your kitties," Laxus said jokingly. "Just let me know when you're ready to leave."

"So why are coming along?" Lucy asked grey as the train rolled along.

"If it's a fire dragon then my Ice make abilities will at least be a good defensive tactic. Besides there's no way Natsu will be able to avoid screwing this up without me there."

"Up …yours…dude." Natsu weakly protested as he hung his head weakly out of the moving train car.

"Yeah yeah," Grey replied. "I don't want to say this will be too easy but we should have an advantage what with Natsu being able to eat fire and all that."

"That may be the case but aside from that brief spat with Acnologia we had, none of us have ever actually fought or killed a real dragon," Laxus stated. "I recommend we try to study this thing if we get the chance before we go charging in."

"Whatever you say weather boy," Gajeel retorted. Laxus spared him a brief glare.

"That thing in the photo," Wendy said a little hesitantly, "It seemed like something more than a dragon, something unnatural."

"You mean all the weird tentacles and eyes?" Lily asked.

Wendy nodded.

"I've never met anything that can compare to it," Lily continued. "Obviously I've never met a real dragon but there was something more animalistic in that photograph."

The others continued their conversation while Lucy thought. She was a little excited as well as nervous. If they could pull this off it would be a massive boost to the guild's reputation. The only other problem was that master Makarov had warned them before they left that other guilds might be there competing with them as word of the event spread. She wondered it guild called Saber tooth she had heard about would show up. Did they have any dragon slayers? She didn't know.

The conversation meandered from point to point as Laxus tried to suggest some sort of plan for what they would have to deal with. Given the large number of unknowns though they didn't come up with much.

Their train stopped at a small town some ways away from the farming village. The townsfolk seemed more than a bit unnerved by the faint but still visible plume of smoke in the distance. With their being no magic powered cars available at the time, much to Natsu's relief, the group set out on foot.

The closer they got to the village the more Lucy wished she had brought some sort of perfume to cover the increasingly horrid smell. Among the smells of burnt plants and houses was the unmistakable stench of charred meat likely coming from what was left of the farmers and their livestock. As if to make things worse, just as the village was coming into view the wind shifted and blew an entirely different set of smells at the party. Natsu's face started to turn green and the other dragon slayers began to look more than uncomfortable. The smell of sulfur, ammonia, and other harsh chemicals filled the air. Natsu, Wendy, and Gajeel passive realized that these were not smells that normally came from a dragon.

Eventually the smell became enough that Grey intervened.

"We're probably going to be poisoned if we keep walking through this. There's a hill over that way," He stated pointing directly north. "We'll get a better view as well as be free of this stench if we go that ways."

"Oh thank God!" Gajeel said uncharacteristically before turning his head to the side and dry heaving.

"Whatever did this is no ordinary dragon," Natsu stated.

"No shit," Laxus snapped.

"Well duh," Natsu snapped back, "I mean we saw that much from the photo but its completely different being right here."

"UHHH!" Wendy groaned as she began to wobble unsteadily.

"The lot of you are completely morons," Charla snapped as she grabbed onto Wendy. "We could have gone to that ridge in the first place and avoided this bad air. Common Wendy we're flying to that hill."

Without another word Charla activated her wings, grabbed onto Wendy and flew off into the distance.

"Bitch…" Lily growled under his breath.

The group, some of them worse for wear finally made it to the hill Grey had pointed out. It was nearing dusk and as the sun set all of them began to notice something odd about the ruined farming village despite things having turned for the bizarre more than once already. As the light faded, the group noticed a slightly glowing green haze surrounding the remains of the village. There were still no signs of the dragon.

"I'm going to wildly guess here and say that that glowing haze is related to the smell we encountered earlier," Gajeel stated. "No, forget that, that probably is the smell."

"I can only imagine that was left behind from the dragon's strange flames," Laxus commented. "Either that or this dragon we're hunting can breathe more than one magical element."

"This pisses me off!" Natsu roared in an unexpected rage. "How are we supposed to investigate if we can't even enter the damn village because of that nasty stuff!"

Natsu began charging a spell.

"Natsu wait that stuff might be…" Grey and Laxus began.

Without bothering to think of his actions Natsu spat a moderately sized fireball and the cloud of green vapor.

"…Flammable." Grey and Laxus finished too late.

The ball of fire intersected the green haze and a bright light shone from the impact.

"Oh no…" Lucy, Happy, Charla, and Wendy said in unison.

The green haze was more than flammable, it was explosive. A bright golden light and plume of golden fire soared into the air.

"Everyone down!" Gajeel roared as he forced Lucy and Wendy to the ground.

The others hit the ground just as a massive shockwave reached the hill they were camped on. Trees, brick, timbers, and other rubble soared over them as the shockwave rammed into them, driving the air from their lungs. More debris and refuse arced other them and a brick slammed into the ground right next to Lucy's shoulder.

There was a second rush of wind as the partial vacuum left by the blast pulled air from its surroundings. Then, it was over. Small bits of rocks and other debris fell to the earth.

"Natsu you idiot," Grey snapped, "if the dragon is anywhere nearby you know damn well it will come to see what all this was."

"I may have just done us all a favor," Natsu replied quietly, "Look"

By the light of the reset fires they could all see a number of burning things in the village they hadn't been able to see before. They looked like large masses of slime, tentacles, eyes, and mouths. Most of them were in pieces or writhing in flames but a number of them were coming out from behind some large boulders and the battered foundations of several farmhouses. They began to spread out as if looking for the source of the blast.

"Those are shoggoths," Grey stated s had almost stuttering in shock. Those aren't native to Fiore. "As a matter of fact they should be extinct."

There was a large screech from a single barn that was well outside the envelope of where the gas had been. The group turned to see a roughly eight-foot-wide monstrosity looking at them and in fact accelerating toward them from the said barn.

"Um…what is that." Wendy gulped.

The creature in question was a large orb in shape, having only a single large eye and a single large mouth filled with long horn-like teeth. Above its single large eye were a sent of sinewy stalks, each of which had a smaller eye atop it.

"We need to fall back now," Laxus shouted as he started to turn.

"What why," Natsu asked confused.

"I'll explain later," Laxus said quickly. "Suffice it to say, its called a beholder. Its main eye emits a powerful anti magic field and its other eyes emits powerful magic. If it gets within ten yards probably more, it can kill us instantly. I'm not an expert on them"

They were interrupted by a second scream. In the time that Laxus had explained both the beholder and many shoggoths had gotten within fifty yards of them.

"Ice make wall!" Grey shouted as he attempted to create a barrier to slow the monsters down. It immediately vanished as the beholder focused on it with its main eye.

"Go now!" Laxus shouted as the whole group finally began to turn and flee.

The beholder focused one of its stalks in their direction. It began to glow.

"Now GO GO GO!" Laxus practically screamed.

"DIE!" the beholder shrieked in a high shrill voice.

The Fairy Tail members bolted. Grey quickly set up several ice walls right in front of them to try to shield his friends from whatever was coming. He turned around and started to run as the beholder finished charging its spell

The beholder fired its spell which shot directly at Grey in the form of a glowing energy beam.

"DISINTIGRATE!" the beholder screamed.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: Dreams and Revelations

Grey's ice walls completely vaporized and Grey began to feel the skin on his back peel off as the disintegration spell neared him. It would have affected his shirt first but he had already stripped that

ZIIIIIP!

Grey was unceremoniously yanked off of his feet as Charla swooped in, grabbed onto his belt, and shot back into the sky. She them had to dive back closer to the ground and in between thinning trees as the beholder attempted to hit her again and again with its ray.

"You're an idiot you know that," Charla stated scornfully, "You knew damn well those barriers wouldn't hold."

"I know that!" Grey snapped, "I was trying to buy us all some time. I didn't know how effective it would be."

He would have said more but the same disintegration ray fired again causing Charla to dive closer to the brush and brambles on the ground below. It only took a few moments to get back to the other guild members and it quickly became obvious that they were losing ground. The beholder itself was fast but its army of shoggoths was even faster, squirming and sliding around obstacles faster than any human could run.

The two landed and began to run with the others. It occurred to Grey that if they had enough exceeds they could all simply fly away. However, they didn't, leaving them no other choice except to flee. This was becoming all too apparent to not be working.

"Dammit they're not giving up," Laxus snarled as he looked over his shoulder. "I think we're gonna have to fight. When the beholder gets here stay out of direct view of its main eye and your magic might work."

"Good cuz I'm getting pissed off," Gajeel growled as he stopped pivoted and faced the oncoming hoard. The rest of the guild stopped and readied themselves as well. Lucy grabbed for Taurus's key and prepared to summon him. Wendy seemed ready to buff her guild mates with her magic. The hoard was within 40 yards but the beholder was nowhere to be seen.

"Roar of the iron dragon, Roar of the fire dragon, Roar of the lightning dragon, Ice make spear."

Natsu's attack seemed to be the most effective as large swaths of shoggoths were burnt to ashes. Gajeel's roar was far less effective as it tore apart a large number of the eldritch creations but they quickly began to reconnect their severed parts and reform. Laxus's attack was moderated in terms of effectiveness as most of the shoggoths it hit became paralyzed from the electricity but did not appear to be dead. Grey's attack was unusually effective as all of the shoggoths seemed to have little resistance to ice magic. All of the ones that were hit by his spear seemed to become frozen solid. Lucy waited to summon Taurus until the remaining enemies got closer.

It was because Lucy was not yet directly engaged in battle that she was the first to notice when the beholder appeared from behind a large thicket barely 20 feet away.

"Shit," Gajeel said sourly as he saw the creature much too close to them.

Several things seemed to happen in slow motion at this point. Obviously, each guild members began to turn in the direction of the beholder to attack it. Wendy looked up at the disturbance and lost focus, causing the enchantment she was making to fizzle out. Lucy immediately brought her key down to summon Taurus but was till too slow. Grey, Natsu, Laxus, and the exceeds could only watch in horror, as they could not react in time, as two of the beholder's stalks lowered at them. Both fired in rapid succession.

The first effect was a paralyze which the dragon slayers and Grey seemed able to resist albeit barely. Lucy, the exceeds, and Wendy fell to the ground unable to move.

The second ray was a sleep spell, likely fired on the assumption that the paralyze ray would not effect everyone. This one affected everyone save for Lucy who could only watch in mute horror as all of her friends were knocked unconscious.

The beholder and its shoggoths moved forward. The cyclopean orb of a monster halted and looked over the guild members one by one. When it came to Lucy and saw she was still conscious it did not put her to sleep but instead grinned arrogantly at her before speaking.

"Still awake human," the beholder taunted as it floated over her. Lucy mentally screamed as a long stream of pink drool splattered onto her stomach from the beholders mouth. It smelled of ammonia and rotten meat and made the skin it touched itch unbearably.

"Ah, a celestial wizard," the beholder commented as it saw her key ring. "I had been planning to make you my dinner but you'll be much more useful in my research."

The beholder looked over the unconscious bodies for a moment before speaking.

"Bring the fire user over here," the beholder commanded before turning its gaze back to Lucy. "That friend of yours cost me some valuable research materials with the little stunt he did back there. Seeing as you're the only one left awake I will give you the honor if seeing him die."

Lucy watched in growing terror as Natsu's sleeping body was dragged over to the beholder by a shoggoths and laid before the Cyclops.

"See you in hell human filth!" the beholder roared as it aimed its charging disintegration ray at Natsu's sleeping form.

Lucy would have screamed if she was able to move. Shed could blink and move her eyes but that was about it.

On an empty patch of ground several yards behind the beholder and still within Lucy's line of sight a tall black armored figure popped out of nowhere as if by teleportation. Lucy's heart pounded in absolute terror until she got a proper look at him. While the figure looked similar to the one she had seen in her dreams it was not identical. For starters its armor, while it had the same general design, was not jet black like the figure in her dream. It had a mottled black-blue and gray blue tint in large areas and the helmet did not hat a crest or plume like the figure in her dreams. Further the figure carried no shield at all and held a large great sword which rested on its shoulder plate instead of a spear.

"Carnihlthrax I'm going to have to stop you there," The armored figure stated in a flat adult male voice with no noticeable accent that she could detect.

The beholder whirled around startled before seeming to relax somehow. It was hard to tell with such an oddly shaped creature.

"You!" Carnihlthrax snapped, "What are you doing here."

"First, I owe my co-worker a favor and as such I'm afraid I can't let you harm or kill any of these wizards."

The figure then pointed to Lucy

"She's the only exception. My co-worker, as I put it, wanted me to kill her but I still have something left of my moral compass so I refused."

"And why should I let you take any of them?" Carnihlthrax growled, "I might be persuaded to trade them to you but I'm not giving anything away for free."

"That's the second reason I'm here," The figure stated, "I know very well that you broke your word or did you think that I wouldn't notice the dimensional rift you created to summon that eldritch dragon. I'm almost certain you weren't able to control it which is why it destroyed that village before the summoning wore off. Part of our agreement was that you were only to use the artifact we gave you with our permission. You realize that since you violated your part of the agreement that I am no longer bound by my side of it. Your expertise in dimensional and temporal magic is the reason we brought here instead of leaving you in your dying home world. Your assistance in our work was highly valued which is why we made that nearby lair for you to continue your research. However, this latest stunt of yours means that I can kill you right here right now with no repercussions from my commander."

Lucy's mind whirled as she tried to make sense of the conversation. She couldn't see the figure's guild mark with all that armor on so she had no clue as to who he was or where he was from.

"For starters I could warp that girl out of here before you could slay me," Carnihlthrax said in a haughty tone. "With everything she's heard you would certainly be punished for revealing all of this to her."

"Oh is she still conscious?" the figure replied turning to look and Lucy. "Yes she is, her eyes are wide open. Well that would certainly classify as a security leak if everything I've said so far hadn't been declassified a while ago."

The figure turned back to Carnihlthrax before speaking.

"Negotiating with your species has never worked too well so I'm going to give you a choice," The figure stated in a bland tone, "In all honesty I knew you would likely go back on your word sooner or later. I knew you wouldn't be able to resist playing with that spell so here is what I'm going to offer you. Return the artifact to me and let all of these guild members go and I will overlook this incident and wipe these wizards' memories so they never remember meeting you. In addition, I'll ensure that no hostile group will approach this area for a whole year. This will give you time to repair your losses. If you refuse however, I may or may not kill you but I will certainly a bounty on your head large enough that you wont survive two months. That is of course only if these guild members and my other partner don't kill you first."

"Go fuck yourself!" Carnihlthrax snarled as he pulled a large obsidian chunk out from under his tongue and activated the spell on it. Less than a hundred yards away a massive golden eldritch dragon materialized.

Carnihlthrax then aimed his disintegration ray at the figure and fired it.

"I may have lied about my teleportation cool down the last time I spoke to you," The figure stated as the ray neared him.

A look of shock appeared on the beholder's face as thin strands of black energy, almost like ink shot from him and connected to all of the Fairy Tail members, including the exceeds.

The disintegration ray hit the figure and fizzled out upon impact and, just before the surrounding shoggoths could overwhelm him he vanished, along with all of the Fairy Tail guild members.

Carnihlthrax screamed in an animalistic rage, feeling for the first time in decades, a true sense of fear.

Lucy opened her eye and found herself in a massive field of flowers of every conceivable shape, color, and luster. The sun was high in the sky and a faint cool breeze smelling of lavender and other flowers washed over her.

Lucy got up and looked around. Specifically, she was on some sort of cobblestone path that extended to the horizon in both directions. At one horizon the moon was rising. This put Lucy on edge as she could very well tell that it was not the moon of Earthland. It was much larger and seemed to be of a slightly darker gray than the one she was familiar with.

Looking around and then examining the nearest flower she saw that it, along with every other, contained a slightly glowing sphere above it. Through each sphere Lucy could see a different landscape, as if she was looking down at the world from above. Each orb showed something different. Most showed variations of what looked like earthland and edolas, However the further she looked the more different they became. She saw one flower with a completely different stalk and held an orb showing a massive metropolis of grey buildings with large numbers of metallic flying vehicles. The populace of this one, of what she could see had many people with mechanical limbs.

A bright light flashed and several images of mushroom shaped fireballs appeared. She saw the people from before turned to ash in seconds and the grey buildings being smashed to the ground.

Lucy shouted with a start as the orb shattered into many jagged fragments, the world she was seeing vanished, and the flower holding it withered and died.

"I must be dreaming," She said to herself.

Tentatively, Lucy touched a single petal of another flower with a similar grey city that had not gone up in smoke.

Nothing happened and the flower felt like an ordinary plant.

"That's a relief," Lucy breathed out and withdrew her hand.

And then, everything changed.

As she was withdrawing her hand it bumped against one of the orbs that looked like a view of Fiore.

The orb immediately shattered, that flower wilted and died, and Lucy's surroundings changed.

Lucy leapt back with a start and accidentally brushed her hand against flowers on the other side of the path.

She was greeted with a number of shattering sounds and whirled around to see half a dozen dead flowers surrounded by still living flowers. All of which were now darkening.

Lucy looked up to see that the large moon from before had eclipsed the sun, showering the meadow in a dark twilight. She also noted that the gentle breeze from before had completely stopped. It was completely silent.

Lucy froze completely still as after a few moments she began to hear whispering sounds coming from the dead flowers. Too soft to hear at first, but their growing volume soon left Lucy all too able to make out what they were saying, much of which she did not understand.

"Woe to you on earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you in a fierce anger for he knows he hath but a short time."

"What in..?" Lucy began but the voices cut her off.

"Wisdom is needed hear, Let him who has the knowledge calculate the number of the beast, for it is a mortal number. That number is six hundred and sixty-six."

"Please stop!" Lucy begged to no one in particular as she was starting to freak out. As if in response the voices only got louder and swirls of white mist began to rise from the dead flowers.

"THEY WILL THROW DUST ON THEIR HEAD, TEAR AT THEIR HAIR AND WITH GREAT WEEPING AND MOURNING CRY OUT 'WOE! WOE TO YOU GREAT CITY, WHERE ALL WHO HAD SHIPS ON THE SEA BECAME RICH THROUGH YOUR WEALTH! IN ONE HOUR SHE HAS BEEN BROUGHT TO RUIN!'" the voices screamed.

"STOP PLEASE STOP!" Lucy cried out as she clutched at her head.

…

There was silence

…

Lucy looked up to see a chain reaction of flowers dying without a sound, the origin point of which was the single one she had touched. From them rose a thick white mist that began to form into spectral images of people she knew. Gray, Erza, her other guildmates, her celestial spirits, her father, soon they all stood before her staring at her with undisguised fury. Strangely, Natsu was the only one who was absent.

"What? What do you want," Lucy said as she tried to calm down a bit.

In unison each of them raised their right hand and pointed at Lucy. Ten of red threads shot from their outstretched hands and connected to her stomach. Lucy swatted at them but her hands went right through them.

_Wait a minute_, Lucy thought with a start. _They aren't pointing at my stomach. They're pointing at my womb._

She didn't know how she knew this but she did none the less.

"You are the mother of demons!" Grey snarled. Lucy jumped in surprise.

"The mother of the devil," Mirajane added in a soft monotone voice.

"The mother of the paradox!" Wendy said in an uncharacteristically venomous tone.

"The mother of death," Lisanna said flatly

"The maker of the hoarcrux," Laxus sneered

"The taker of breath," Makorov stated.

It went on

"The mother of lust."

"The mother of envy."

"The slayer of Kronos."

"The ruin of plenty."

…

…

There was silence for a moment.

The figures parted and the misty form of Natsu stepped forward from concealment.

"And the one responsible for the death of over one hundred worlds," He said simply. "Your actions have brought ruin again and again regardless of the universe you inhabit. This time will be no different. You just can't resist spreading your legs it seems"

Lucy was dumbfounded and utterly speechless. After a few seconds she rallied herself forcing willpower through her. She stood upright and stared down the phantoms.

"As if!" She retorted, "I know you're not Natsu, none of you are real. Oh its possible I might be dreaming and you are all manifestations of some bad part of my sub-conscious. But even if you are, I've dealt with enough grief in my life to be able to handle your insults."

"I doubt it," phantom Natsu replied coldly. "You sure seemed eager in the previous dream where we were about to get married."

Lucy felt a chill run through her.

"I know what you're probably thinking," Phantom Natsu added, "This is all getting a bit too detailed for some figment of your imagination. While its true that you cant resist Natsu's manhood, I've seen you enough in different timelines to have any doubt. I, the one speaking to you, am not him."

"Who the hell are you then?" Lucy demanded trying and for now succeeding in keeping her composure.

"You really are a dumb thirsty bitch!" Phantom Natsu snapped, "Do I have to make it any more obvious to you?"

Before Lucy could say anything else, Phantom Natsu put out his right hand and seemed to summon a large black spear. Lucy recognized it immediately.

"We've met before, if only briefly," Phantom Natsu stated.

"Who in the world are you!" Lucy growled, "What do you want with me!"

"To put it simply," Phantom Natsu said with a slight grin. "I want you dead. I want to kill you myself and look you in the eye when you die. I want to see the light fade from your eyes and watch as your corpse rots away to nothing. That is what I want."

"Oh," Lucy retorted, "If that's what you want to bad then come and face me. You'll face the full fury of a fairy tail wizard."

"I would love to," Phantom Natsu replied calmly. "However, my guild master has given me other orders."

"What kind of guild would accept a psycho like you?" Lucy taunted.

"I'm sure you'll be able to take a good guess if you put your mind to it," Phantom Natsu grinned. "However I'll give you a hint. It's the kind of guild that grants eternal youth to its members. The kind of guild that gives me a complete immunity to magic. The kind of guild that will allow me to finally take what was stolen from me."

Lucy stared at the figure confused.

"And the kind of guild which will allow me to kill you if you get too close to Natsu," the figure finished. "I've done my research and my testing. Your universe is similar enough to the previous ones that if you bear a child it will have a power it cannot control, a power that will destroy this universe. My master has given me strict orders that I am to do what ever is needed to prevent this universe from falling. There is a very thin line you are close to crossing. If a single toe of yours even touches it, well, you get the idea."

Lucy was dumfounded again.

Without warning, and before she could say anything else, the dream ended.


End file.
